


Glamour

by misbehavingvigilante



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 15:03:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10699467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misbehavingvigilante/pseuds/misbehavingvigilante
Summary: There had always been magic in his veins.





	Glamour

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KarasuNei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarasuNei/gifts).



> So this is a birthday fic for the lovely [KarasuNei](http://archiveofourown.org/users/KarasuNei/pseuds/KarasuNei). 
> 
> 4k later with such things like wow, I'm still bad at description, what do you mean show and not tell, and damn that's an abrupt ending but I couldn't think of anything better. But god I hope the banter makes up for it, we have this little piece. Honestly this thing gave me a lot of trouble and I can't say I'm one hundred percent happy with it, but I also hope you'll like it, Nei~! <3
> 
> Also it probably needs to be said, that in my line of wanting to write a more flawed Jack, I probably ended up hm and Gabriel a la their characterization in [A Light in the Darkness](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7619773/chapters/17345977) which is also written by [KarasuNei](http://archiveofourown.org/users/KarasuNei/pseuds/KarasuNei). It wasn't exactly intentional, but credit is owed where it's needed, all the same. 
> 
> Also shoutout to [Chiwibel](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiwibel/) for encouraging me. I was really insecure about this piece so she definitely helped me feel better about it as a whole. 
> 
> Also let me know if I need to add anymore additional tags. I'm a little uncertain how to tag this piece, so. Or if you're a confused about anything, because I feel like even if I kept things simple all things considered someone might get confused.

There had always been magic in his veins.

The Reyes family could trace back their magic for countless generations making them one of the oldest families in the magical community. Not the most well-known, but that was by design. His family liked to keep their privacy, so their name carried weight but there wasn’t as much personal information on individual members out there.

Growing up it always seemed like common sense to Gabriel, you should never have too much information out there about yourself rather you were magic or mundane. But there exists magical families who acted more like celebrities sharing details of their personal lives believing that people were just dying to find out and in general having an inflated sense of worth.

Aside from that, Gabriel always took a bit of pleasure out of watching people dig their own graves when they didn’t really know who he was. It was always funny watching them try to save face the moment realization dawned upon them.

Gabriel didn’t like to flaunt his presence or his magic too much so most people didn’t believe him a born witch. They took the subtleties, the barely there scent of magic on him to be that of a self-taught or spontaneous witch.

Those who learnt magic typically acted with secrecy because they tended to be around others who didn’t know of magic or would be afraid of it. They were some laws in place like that, but ultimately if you were able to figure out the existence of magic yourself and arm yourself with spells, people left you alone.

There was enough weird shit in the world without people’s first thoughts being magic, so most things got a pass.

Self-taught witches weren’t the ones that usually made such a huge wave in the world of magic anyways. That blessing or curse depending on who you asked laid with spontaneous witches.

The two were similar enough, whereas at one point neither had magic only to then later claim it. But self-taught witches learnt from scratch, they started right at the bottom having to claw their way up to something other than mediocrity.

Whereas spontaneous witches had magic that appeared at a pretty high level, that put them on par with born witches who had received the training from generations before them, but with none of the control, and no grasp of the basics.

People tended to get hurt when there was a spontaneous witch around, too much wild magic abound. Not even the witches themselves was exempt from this harm, either.

Gabriel had always taken a special interest in knowing the differences and similarities of the three classes of witches. He always assumed he’d end up doing something that dealt with them. It had been suggested he should join the council but Gabriel laughed off that with the comment of wanting to keep his soul. More seriously, the fact he was a born witch was part of the reason he hadn’t wanted to pursue that career path. As it stood, there were too many born witches on the council leaving them the majority and only one spontaneous and one self-taught witch on it.

There were other careers still that would have aligned with his interests, but Gabriel knew he wanted to work with children. Having siblings, the majority of which he was older than had early on let him discover he was good with kids. Not only that, he actually liked kids.

It had been a bit of waiting game for two reasons, one if he got into a romantic relationship serious enough to bring up the idea of having kids and two making sure he was really ready to face all the possible challenges of adopting a so-called problem child.

 

 

 

Jack listened to Gabriel go on, he always had such a nice voice that sometimes you just got distracted by melody of it, and lost what was actually being said. Still, Jack could tell this was important, Gabriel had that look on his face.

That scrunched up look that told him he was not only annoyed but concerned. Given the subject matter, Jack would have assumed there would have been anger there, too.

But, Gabriel probably time to mellow out before reaching out to him.

“This one definitely fits your definition.”

“So you were listening.” That surprised Gabriel a little he knew Jack could be a bit dense at times. Particularly when it came to interacting with other people without manipulating them some social cues got missed like remembering it was polite to actually listen to what someone was saying to you. 

“I wasn’t just sitting there looking pretty pretending to listen.” Jack said knowingly.

Gabriel deadpanned. “Shocking.”

“You did want my help, right? That’s why you called me?”

Gabriel didn’t much appreciate the angling of Jack’s question, though he couldn’t really resist working with the material Jack had given him. Thought it was probably a bad idea, it always did help take some stress off him the banter they had together.    

“I definitely didn’t call you here to tell you you’re pretty.”

“Aw, that’s a shame.” Though Jack didn’t look deterred in the slightest as his eyes never left Gabriel for a moment. “That would have been nice. We already have this nice romantic moonlight.”

Jack looked up, they were underneath the night sky together though dulled by the city’s glow it was still beautiful. That was one thing he missed about the country, never could see the stars quite as brightly here.

Though, Gabriel was here. Jack met his eyes again, and his beauty certainly matched the stars and more.

“Can you focus? Use some of that charm to help save a kid’s life instead of on me. You’ll annoy me less that way.”

“You’d miss me if I wasn’t around.”

“Once again, you have a high opinion of yourself.”

“Well, yeah, obviously.” Jack shrugged nonchalantly. “I’ll get it done, no worries. Not like I enjoy seeing children suffer either.”

 

 

 

“I don’t know why I put up with him.”

“I didn’t introduce you two. You would think with how much you come over here to complain about Jack that would have been the case.”

Though, that hadn’t been the real reason Gabriel came over in the first place. Ana had welcomed Gabriel into her home once more without question, seeing that her friend had needed an ear.

It had quickly delved from serious to silly. Unsurprisingly given the change of topic to Jack. Gabriel did always end up talking about Jack unprompted.

Ana had noticed this very early on, but it still seemed to evade Gabriel’s notice.

“Like Jack doesn’t complain about me.” Gabriel rolled his eyes, he knew very well that Jack only had a small group of friends, of which Ana he was closest to when he wasn’t around to hold that honor. “Bitching about how I call him out on his shit, how I don’t fall for those pretty blue eyes of his, and how I get to see the more dense side of him that’s fails a lot when his manipulation doesn’t work.”

“Hm.” Ana sipped her tea.

“What?” Gabriel knew that gesture, he’d seen Ana do it many things where she didn’t say something she was thinking. “What aren’t you saying?”

“Well, it’s just interesting what you think Jack’s complaints are is all.”

“I can’t be that off base.”

“You could always ask Jack. I’m not the middlewoman between you two.”

“You’d always take Jack’s side so you wouldn’t be a very good one, anyways.”

“And yet, here you still are treating me like one. So many of your problems would get solved if you two actually talked to each other instead of just flirting.”

“Is that what Jack calls it?”

“That’s what most people would call it.” Ana muttered under her breath, the absurdity of this situation was really out of this world. Jack wasn’t the only one that could be a little dense but since Gabriel hadn’t quite come to terms with that yet, she’d wait.

But not right now, besides, she was sure Fareeha would want to see Gabriel.

Gabriel glared knowing he’d missed something but ultimately distracted by the appearance of Fareeha. The very too conveniently timed appearance which meant Ana had gone and used her magic again.

Damn that woman, she was probably the most subtle magic user he’d ever witnessed.

“Uncle Gabe.” Fareeha exclaimed, rushing into his arms.

Gabriel was happy to see Fareeha still, so ultimately Ana’s comment would be lost for now.  

“My favorite niece, how are you?” He smiled brightly.

“I’m still your only niece, but I do like being the favorite.” Fareeha replied back happily. “Mom didn’t tell me you were coming over until just now or I would have been down earlier.”

“Our adult conversations would bore you, Fareeha. I was saving you. You should be happy you have such a thoughtful mother.”

“Yeah, right.” Fareeha rolled her eyes, unconvinced that was actually the truth, but she knew better than to argue. It never went anywhere, and she couldn’t even get Uncle Gabe with her pleading eyes to tell her anything either. “Can you show me more of your magic? It’s so pretty. Mom’s is so bland.”

“Gabriel’s magic is very theatrical because that’s the kind of person he is, dear.”

“You’re just jealous she likes mine better.” Gabriel grinned, he took no offense from the accusation because all things considered Ana was right. Where her magic was subtle, or to a child’s eyes bland, his has always been mesmerizing to watch when he wanted it to be.

An instant and a flicker of magic later, he crafted together a scene of wonder. An illusion of fireworks appeared above Fareeha’s head, ranging in colors and sizes, even paired with sounds effects to make it really real.

Needlessly to say, Fareeha was rather impressed with the display.

 

 

 

It was understandable why the council had looked at Jesse McCree and decided to make an example of him. Jack couldn’t say he really agreed, the punishment that they were imposing which was nothing short of a very long imprisonment with a kid that had only barely grasped any knowledge of magic before it went and exploded on him. Literally in this case, as the kid had lost part of his arm due to his magic being wild.

It wasn’t all that uncommon with spontaneous witches, though. Most of the time you could do a few tricks with magic without any consequences, so none were really the wiser that it was a ticking bomb just waiting to go off. Even the few that got scared of their sudden magical talents and choose not to dive into them usually ended in tragedy regardless, magic had a way of showing up in times of emotional distress.

If it had only been a matter of that, the council probably wouldn’t have responded as they had. Two factors were really the reason acting behind the more serious charges and ultimate punishment that Jesse was facing.

One came down to simple bad luck, there had been an uptick recently of spontaneous witches. It wasn’t unheard of, some days, some years there was just more magic, it was just something that was. Though these times often made tensions rise in the mundane and magical world. The mundane world grew concerned and suspicious as the favorite excuse of magical outbursts were gas leaks so people could think it was a cover up for bombs going off instead. That was the fan favorite simply because those things happened, and it spared the time and effort of someone having to go poke around in someone’s head and change what they had saw.

Jack knew from personal experience just how taxing it could be to manipulate the truth for many people, particularly when it was something magical. The mind remembered certain things easier, and was much less likely to let go of oddities than something ordinary. So it was easier to simply spin a story a credible way instead.

The second came down to how Jesse had been using his magic before he was discovered. He had been a part of a gang, and had thus been using his magic to aid in criminal activity. 

Spontaneous witches just tended to be bear the brunt of it, if that’s how it was used when their magic first appeared. A lot of people assumed that’s how his magic would always be used, so it was precautionary thing of sorts.

As if there weren’t witches that were born, or self-taught who engaged in illegal activities. The notion was pretty laughable, but then again, what Jack was doing now was in a legal grey area, if not outright illegal. Gabriel had been pretty insistent that he used whatever methods necessary to secure a conversation with the council and with Jesse, separately.

Gabriel could have secured a meeting with the council himself, but by then, the sentencing of Jesse would have already been ruled. One thing magical courts had going for them, was how expedient things tended to though that wasn’t always a good thing.

That had been the main reason, Gabriel had come to him for help at all. Most people never thought Jack with kind eyes and an easy smile was someone who would dabble into manipulation magic. Let alone be one of the most skilled practitioners of this particular branch of magic.

Sometimes, it was just too easy. Very few people could resist his charms, and there wasn’t a lot of fun in life when you could make most people do what you wanted.

Jack knew it had twisted him. He knew he hadn’t used to be so arrogant, or so blasé before.

Before he had been kind and good, naïve mostly. Now, well, Jack didn’t really think he was good, probably more neutral than anything. He aligned with his interests regardless of where they fell on the scales of good or bad. He never did find much use in being unnecessarily cruel, so he was kind more often than cruel. Though he had no problem being cruel when it was deserved.

Still, running into Gabriel Reyes had probably been one of the more defining moments of his life. So here he was now answering Gabriel’s requests and whims more often than not.

It could probably be argued he was a better man around Gabriel, too.

Ana had told him as much and Jack didn’t deny it, but that wasn’t the reason why he stayed.

 

 

 

“Aw, great. Another one of you. What do you want?”

As if Jesse hadn’t been feeling prickly enough. Couldn’t get much worse in a cell, not like any cell he’d ever seen before but still. A cell was a cell even if there was some fancy fixings in it to prevent magic from being used.

Yeah, that was still taking some time to get his head wrapped around. There was still the loss of his arm, too. It helped not looking down and being reminded of what he lost.

This blond piece of shit with the pretty words had been entertaining him for the last couple of minutes before someone else came in.

“I told you, he had your personality. He used quite a lot of colorful words towards me.” Jack said, completely ignoring the kid to stare at Gabriel instead.

“That’s because you’re full of shit.” Jesse glared, undeterred to lose his spirit even in confinement.

“Well, that’s true.” Gabriel agreed. “Ignore him.” 

In hindsight, Gabriel should have known he shouldn’t have used those words with one Jack Morrison. He always seemed to take them as a challenge regardless of the circumstances they were said in.

“That breaks my heart, Gabe. I don’t know how I’ll get over this heartache, I will be mourning always but you did call me pretty earlier.”

“You’re imagining that.” Gabriel responded but continued to look at the young man in front of him taking in his condition. Jack had been right that hadn’t seemed overly hurt, traumatized no doubt. But no prosthetic in sight. He rolled his eyes, the council probably hadn’t even bothered on wasting the resources given how heavily the ruling was for imprisonment.

“I distinctively remember you used pretty and me in the same sentence.”

“That’s not how that conversation went and you know it.”

“Alternative interpretation doesn’t necessarily mean I’m wrong.”

“Alternative-“ Gabriel’s head snapped towards Jack, and judging by the looks on his face, the blond had finally gotten what he wanted.

Neither of them in this moment seemed to remember they had an audience.

“Oh my god.” Jesse said loudly, twitching. “Is this some sort of new torture technique where I have to watch an old married couple fight? I think I’d prefer prison.”

“We’re not married.” Gabriel quickly amended.

Jack who hadn’t much liked how fast Gabriel had replied to that, pushed his luck further. “I’d definitely remember if he proposed to me.”

“Yeah, you’d assume I’d be the one to propose, wouldn’t you?” God, Jack gave him headaches. Children tended to be easier to deal with than Jack which was saying something.

“I’d propose to you if you wanted me to.”

That caught Gabriel off guard for how sincere it sounded. Jack didn’t do sincere, or at least not very often.

He looked sincere, too. Gabriel would know as he took a step towards Jack to really make out the finer features of his face to look for any trace of deception.  Jack matched his step forward, leaving them intimately close with one another.

Gabriel should have felt uncomfortable with the proximity but he wasn’t.

“Oh, lord. Kill me now.” Jesse muttered under his breathe, he did not want to see two old folks make out in front of him.

That brought Gabriel’s attention back at hand, curse Jack for making him lose focus. He immediately got some distance back between him and Jack and put his focus back on Jesse. “Look, I get you don’t want to trust anyone right now. That’s smart after what you’ve been through and honestly, you have every reason to doubt I’m being sincere. But I am going to offer you a second chance. The council? They’re just going to imprison you or worse.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because he’s a nice person.” Jack answered softly. “I might be full of shit, but he isn’t. I think you’d be better handling this one yourself, Gabriel. Good luck.”

“Right.” Gabriel acknowledged, it wasn’t like Jack to leave a conversation without a fuss like that. But he’d have to deal with that later, right now he had to rectify his first impression with Jesse. “What can I do that will make you willingly to at least hear me out?”

“Well…” Jesse at least had an idea, didn’t know if anything would be done but given his current circumstances it was at least worth a shot. Even if those two did seem rather hopeless in other regards.

 

 

 

“You know, he’s going to ask you if you’re going to run.” Jack opened with, appearing at Ana’s who only regarded him with a raised eyebrow.

“Gabriel is awfully dramatic saying how he won’t risk his soul to politics, but somehow mine is fine.” Ana said, rolling her eyes.

“You know he respects your strength. You’re a much better choice than I am.”

“You’re not so bad around the right people. You know Gabe and I don’t stand for that nonsense. And you always act like less of an ass around kids, anyways.”

“I mean, what kind of person isn’t nice to kids? Why try to squash that enthusiasm for life when chances are when they’re older they’re probably going to get end up disillusioned and depressed.”

Ana thought over her next words carefully, leaving a lull in the conversation before she found them. “Again, I’m not a therapist. I feel as if you should be talking to someone qualified about that.”

“What’s the point? Could always convince them I was fine. Besides, being around Gabe helps.”

“Other people aren’t medicine that’s why.” Ana said sharply, hoping to instill that truth into Jack’s hard head. “That and you’ll have a hard time convincing Jesse to seek help for what’s probably a host of issues himself, if you don’t, too.”

Jack blinked. “Why would I be involved in that?”

“You’re both idiots.” Ana sighed deeply. “It almost isn’t funny anymore.”

It wasn’t like Gabriel’s first call had been to her. Nope, it was Jack. It was always Jack. Yet somehow this wasn’t clear to the actually parties involved. Unbelievable.

“What isn’t?”

“Be sure and tell Gabriel how you think he won’t need you around when it comes to Jesse.” At this point, if that didn’t work, Ana was just going to lock them in a closet together. Bar it with magic and enacted a special spell that would only make it open if they talk out their feelings for one another.  

“I honestly don’t think the kid is going to like me that much? I mean, I don’t blame him. I’m a lot like the council that’s trying to imprison him. Not that I take that personally though. Gabe is great dad material.”

“Is there anything you don’t think Gabriel is good at?”

“Well, he’s overall a jack of all trades, which is ironic considering my name is Jack.” Jack gave a goofy grin in return.

Ana twitched. “I don’t know why I bother with you two sometimes.”

“Free babysitting service.”

“Ah. That’s right.”

 

 

 

Gabriel wasn’t in a good mood, dealing with the council in his limited experience so far often had that impact on him. But when the fate of a child was at stake that made it harder to rein his temper.

Smoke plumed off his body, a show of his careful calm dissipating honestly, how could they be so unsympathetic?  At least, the entire council hadn’t voted on imprison Jesse, some of them had showed objections. Unsurprisingly it came from the only two members of the council that weren’t born witches.

Fuck.

“Did they say no? I mean, we could just arranged an accident or just break him out.” Jack offered, reading Gabriel’s distress as clear as day. He always had a habit of expressing his emotions with smoke when things got really bad.

“Glad to see you’re on board for murder.”

“For you? Always.” It was probably the wrong time to smile, but Jack couldn’t help it.

Gabriel laughed, which was also probably the wrong reaction. But Jack started it. “Glad to see you’re so ride or die for me.”

“Have been for a while now, but thanks for noticing.”

“Right, but anyways, I convinced those fuckers to let me have Jesse instead. If something goes wrong it’ll be on me, but my mom’s on board because it means she has a grandbaby.”

“You’ll be a great dad.” Jack said with any hesitation. “I was telling Ana that earlier. She agrees, by the way.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll see. Doesn’t mean the kid will see me as that, not going to force that on him. That wouldn’t be right. He might just high tail it out of here after I can teach him control.”

“Nah, I don’t think so. No worries, though, I’ll try not to be around.”

Gabriel furrowed his eyebrows. “Why wouldn’t you be around?”

“I don’t know, I’m not the best influence?” Jack didn’t really have a strong argument prepared because he hadn’t thought this was going to be something to object. “Don’t want to fuck up that kid any more than he already is.”

“That kid could use an example of someone older than him seeking help for his obvious mental health issues.”

“I swear, you and Ana have been conspiring behind my back.”

“Surprisingly, I would miss your dumbass.” Gabriel had mulled that over a lot since he last seen Jack, something about that conversation had sat right with him. He had worked it out until he figured out why exactly. “Your comments about finding little joy out of life aren’t cute, they’re alarming. I’m not stupid enough to believe that you’re just fucking with me either when you slip into your more lighthearted persona thereafter.”

“Well, I never said you were stupid. You’re smart, kind, handsome.”

“I can’t date you if you’re dead. I’m not that good at necromancy.”

Well, Jack had to admit that was certainly a compelling argument. “I knew you were flirting back. That I just wasn’t imagining it.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t fall for your charm. I fell for you despite of it.”


End file.
